Mass Effect: Reload
by CrazyGeekT
Summary: A story of a Teenager pulled into the Mass Effect Universe, using his knowledge of future events, can he change the future for the better?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter one**

It's funny, how quickly your life can change; from one day being completely in your comfort zone living a normal life, to the next living a life you thought only exsisted in the realm of fantasy - Fighting to stay alive. As I type here, on this datapad; inside the SSV Normandy, I write the story of the life changing event that descended upon me and the ripples it created in a universe I never thought I'd see as I have.

My name is Thomas Hall, I was pretty much just your average 17 year old British teenager; medium build, short dark brown hair... and a passion for the Mass Effect video game series. I would play for hours on my Xbox 360; creating Commander Shepards and building the stories of legends, making choices that affected the game universe in so many ways; each as dynamic and creative as the last. I found solice in the amazing story, the beautiful worlds and the interesting and vibrant characters; compared to that, my life was like a blank piece of paper covered in stick men. So this world which I could escape to and become whoever I wanted quickly became a passion of mine.

However, one night changed it all. One night, just like any other, altered my life in amazing and almost impossible ways.  
It was a Sunday night, I had just finnished my meal of cheese pasta bake and headed up to my room to settle down for the night and play some Mass effect before the tedium of the week began again.

I switched on my Xbox and booted up the game. The soothing synthetic sound of the title music played and the faces of the characters that had grown on me dramatically since I first starting playing the games played. After a few seconds of pressing and moving the selector over my current Commander Shepard; the classic "John Shepard" - A good solider through and through;  
when I remembered I had completed the game on this save.

"Duh, Tom, you seriously didn't remember kicking sovreign's, the Geths and Saren's asses?" I mentally said to myself, walking over to my silver shelves which were lined with assorted DVDs, games and CDs; I picked up my copy of "Mass Effect 2" the cover displaying Shepard, Miranda and Thane - Looking badass as usual, their faces showing the seriousness required on the battlefield.

I put the Mass Effect 2 disc into the xbox disc tray, placing the original disc in it's case. Booting up the game and, for the second time that day, settle in for the night. The title played as usual, the bioware logo flashing up on screen in crimson.

"Thanks for making these awesome games, Bioware" I muttered to myself as the game options popped up, along side the cerberus network which hadn't displayed anything new for some time now. Selecting the "New Game" option on screen, I started to import my Commander Shepard from the original. Keep the legend alive, so to speak. After the import was complete the game started up, the overly-long cinematic played as I sat back and watched events unravel.

Watching the collector vessel destroy the orignal SSV Normandy was almost painful to watch; such good memories had been created aboard that ship and now it was being blown apart by the collectors. As Liara ran up to Shepard, her voice almost faltering under the stress and dispear of the horrible event that was unfolding the ship continued to explode at random intervals and flames were spreading around the ship like a horrible growth.

The cinemtatic drew to a close shortly after, the Normandy destroyed, most of the crew dead or injured and Shepard being drawn to a planet via its gravitational pull,in sub-zero temperatures and with breaks in his suits oxygen system; the outlook was grim for poor old Commander Shepard.

Within the next half an hour I as Commander Shepard had successfully escaped from the hacked mechs in the Cerberus faucility in which Shepard had been successfully rebuilt thanks to project "Lazarus", boarding the shuttle with Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor and heading to the next space station in which Shepard would be briefed by the Illusive man and told about "Freedoms Progress". In brief, the mission was a success,  
obviously, and Shepard was reunited the Tali'Zorah vas Neema. The reunion was short lived however and the two parted ways after Tali left Freedoms progress with Veetor.

"It's always nice to see Tali... even when her friends are pointing guns in my face" I thought to myself as I told the Illusive man of what happened. My opinion of the Illusive man hasn't really changed much since the first time I saw him "he's still an evil,  
power-hungry pain in the ass in my opinion. However he did build the "SR2 SSV Normandy" so atleast he has good taste in ships" I said internally as the cut-scene of the Joker reunion and the SR2 Normandy unveiling played, the ship flew out of the hangar bay and the game really began.

As I sat there in my bedroom playing Mass Effect 2, I noticed something odd about my xbox, instead of the usual florecent green lighting that usually illuminated both the console and the controller the lighting itself was a light blue and it wasn't just a solid light either; the light pulsed almost getting lighter and darker. I sat there in bewilderment for a few seconds before I actually took into account the randomness of the change in light colour, the same shade of blue and the pulsing pattern of it were shared oddly enough by the Mass Relays.

"What the...?" I said aloud, my voice reflecting the confusion shown on my face and that was running through my mind, perfectly.  
I sat up from my bed shifted over to the end, moving closer to the xbox. I looked around the room quickly yet with a very analytical eye; making sure that nothing else in my room had changed colour from before. Everything else was as usual, just my xbox had changed to Mass Relay blue, as I have adopted to calling it. I gazed back at my xbox now, the look of confusion still etched into my face like stone.

I held up a hand to the xbox to rest my hand on it, see if anything felt odd about it, to check if anyone had cracked open my xbox and just decided to change the light filter. As I rested my hand on the console however, it began to vibrate rapdidly and the light grew brighter and brigher. My other hand flew up to my face to sheild by eyes from the light of the xbox - which was now filling the room as far as I could tell.

My other hand still rested on the console, my heart pounding in my chest I daren't move at all, at the risk of the xbox exploding in my face.  
I knelt there, heart racing, breathing rapidly when a pulse of energy fired from the console which sent me realing back off my bed to the floor.  
The light still filling the room, I hit my head hard on the floor as I was thrown back.

The room swrilled, losing grip of where I was; what was up and what was down. My ears buzzed; all I could hear was a high-pitched buzzing in my head, the light flickered, everything went black. I lost conciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

The swirling feeling returned to me, my head felt like I was spinning through a void. No sense of direction. No sense of time. Just the swirling and the black which filled my mind, the light of the console was no more, its light no longer illuminating my room. Or at least, what I thought was still my room.

After laying for what seemed to be an eternity, my senses began to form again and return to me. My hearing was no longer filled with the high-pitched buzzing. As I allowed my thoughts to form I continued to remain still, my body not feeling like it was mine, like I was two separate entities - One part being my mind; thoughts, sensations and senses, and the other being my body which wouldn t move no matter how hard I willed it to.

After a while my sight, touch and other senses shifted back into focus. The feeling of my bedroom floor, cold and metallic came to my mind. "Wait..." I thought, "My floor isn t made of metal, its carpet" Confusion came over me like a wave at this point. Shifting my weight to one side, I rolled onto my right side. I was once again greeted with the feeling of cold metal against my skin.

"What is going on?" I muttered as I forced my eyes to open, the will power required to do so was worrying to me. As my eyelids parted from in front of my eyes the sudden introduction of light was painful, I scrunched my fingers together, returning feeling to them as I did. I rubbed my eyes as they adjusted to invading light of the room.  
"Commander Shepard, my sensors are picking up a un registered human life form in the port cargo bay" A strangely familiar voice said, my eyes and ears were unable to pin-point where the voice had come from and who' s it was, despite the voice ringing many bells in my mind.

"I would suggest investigating the individual immediately to reduce risk of damage to the ship or crew, my sensors did not pick up the individual before now, there may be a possible glitch in my systems that forced me to overlook the individual." The voice was not completely natural, though obvious effort had been put into making sure it sounded human; there was a definite synthetic tone to it.

"I will run diagnostics while you investigate" The oddly attractive synthetic female voice then cut off. Through powers of deduction, I assumed I was the unregistered human. The next couple of seconds came a rush of realisation from many things at once. First; I realised whose voice I had been hearing as I had tried to piece together what happened to me, EDI or Enhanced Defence Intelligence. The AI aboard the SSV Normandy.

I then sat up, pushed along by that realisation, I realised where I was. I wasn t sure if I was dreaming this or what, but, I was inside the Normandy. The ship owned and commanded by Commander Shepard! "Holy crap!" I shouted, standing up quickly as I shouted, my head span; maybe from the rush of blood or because of where I was. The metallic room glistened in the once invading light, reflecting of the walls, ceiling and floor.

My thoughts were a wreck, questions rushing through my mind and with no answers to please them. My emotions were a mix of confusion, excitement, worry and joy. All of this lead to not being able to think straight and my heart rate and breathing increased dramatically. Breathing heavily, I looked down to myself, still in my body, wearing my simple grey hoodie, black T-shirt and jeans, just what I had been wearing while I was playing on my Xbox. Patting my torso to check myself I found nothing unusual, noticing my iPod touch was still in my pocket I decided to hold on to it, a piece of the world that I left behind.

A few seconds passed, filled with sentimentality, thinking of my parents and little brother and our home in England; the cloud of memories quickly dispersed as I heard footsteps approach, remembering the layout of the ship from the game I realised they would be approaching from the elevator near engineering. I pulled what thoughts I can together and begin to walk over towards the door, I raised my hands to about shoulder height just as the space-age door separated and slid open, the noise of hydraulics briefly filling the room.

If I said the next couple of minutes were weird, it would be the understatement of the millennia, but I digress, the next few moments would be unforgettable. "My name is Commander Shepard, the captain of this vessel" The commander was John Shepard, alliance solider with his army haircut and Cerberus on-ship clothing ;as he took a few cautious steps towards me, pistol pointing directly at my chest he said in an authoritative tone "Who are you? And how did you get on my ship?" If I could have formed words at that moment, I really didn t show it.

I just stood there, half in awe as Shepard was stood right in front of me and half in fear because he was pointing a gun at me. "I...I..." was all I managed to produce before the commander asked again "I said, who are you? And how did you get on my ship?" It was at that moment a beautiful yet hard-looking woman stepped out from the evaluator, long dark brown hair and wearing what could only be described as a Cerberus cat suit. Miranda Lawson.  
She walked with a certain power and grace, like she belonged on the ship and she knew what she could do, Miranda and Shepard shared the same cautious face as she stopped next to him in the door way. Glancing at me with cold calculating eyes and then looking at Shepard she seemed to be less cautious than him "Probably due to her biotic powers" I thought to myself.

"What have we learned from him? Who is he?" Miranda asked, casting her glance over to me as she spoke, her stance of one hand on her hip showing confidence. "I don t know he doesn't seem like one to talk" Shepard told Miranda, his face relaxed slightly as he spoke.

Having witnessed the brief conversation between the two I felt like I could attempt to talk again, I wasn t sure what I was going to say exactly but, it s better than nothing. "My...my Name is Thomas, Thomas Hall" and the next words were as true as anything "I'm not sure how I got here" Shepard and Miranda both threw a quick glance to each other before locking their eyes back on me. Shepard relaxed his position, standing up straight and placing his pistol on the magnetic clamp on his side.  
"Ok Thomas, don't worry, we won t harm you unless you try it with us first" The words from Shepard relaxed me greatly "But you have to tell us, what are you doing here? How did you get on board?" his voice was more relaxed than previously but still had a cautious under tone to it.

The questions he had asked were the exact same questions I had asked myself since I woke up here, and I still didn t have any answers. "I honestly don t know I was at home playing..." realising what I was about to say, I quickly made up a story to suit this time frame rather than the year 2012 "A game and all of a sudden I passed out and woke up here I don t remember anything from when I passed out until just few minutes ago" Shepard took another step towards me; Miranda opened her mouth as if to say something but closed her mouth and watched us both cautiously. "I won't lie to you Tom, I'm suspicious of this, you just wind up on my ship without any reason why you re here or how you got here" the words made my hear sink a little, this must have reflected on my face because the next words were less untrusting of me "But, your only what, 17? You can t do much damage to me, my crew or my ship so I m gunna hang on before we take any serious action. We ll check you over for weapons and then we ll send you over to our medical bay to get you checked out, ok?" I dropped my hands to my sides at this point.

"Ah I, thanks I m not here to damage anything and honestly, you know just as much as I do at this point" I looked between Shepard and Miranda as I spoke with a half-smile, not wanting to seem like a threat. "EDI, Scan him." Miranda said coldly as if she hadn't heard my words at all. Shepard glanced at her, then looked back to me. "Yes, Officer Lawson" The female synthetic voice said, spotting the speakers from which the voice came I stood still and waited for the scan to finish.

Commencing the scan last roughly a minute, a small line of pure white light passed over my body several times "Just like the decontamination light from Mass Effect 1" I thought to myself, chuckling quietly. "No weapons of any kind detected. However, I did detect a technological anomaly, an object on him contains technology which almost 200 years old" EDI s voice showed concern as she spoke "The anomaly's name, I found after looking through human technology archives was known as the iPod touch, it is of no threat, however it is a point of interest".

"200 years old? EDI, verify." Miranda said, looking up to the speaker/ microphone system. Concern covered Miranda s face, her voice demanding of the AI. "The iPod touch as it was known was last in production in the year 2015, making it 170 years old. The object was apparently used as a personal music player and was built to house, audio, video and image files." EDI said, as if she was reading the archives aloud, which she probably was.

For the next few seconds the only noise was that off the ship, as its mass effect core could be heard pulsing and vibrating. "Secondary scans also detect the object is perfectly functional and still holds audio files" as EDI said this I felt like privacy was being invaded, looking through my iPod, the one things that had been brought with me. "The last time a working model was documented was in a technological museum on Earth that was over 100 years ago" Both Miranda and Shepard looked to me at that moment, confusion for the most part, covered their faces. How was the only word that managed to leave Shepard s mouth at that moment, his eyes analysed me as I stood there; trying to think of a valid reason to have 200 year old technology in my pocket unfortunately, none came to mind.

I took a step forward, thinking I should say "Let me explain" then realising, I couldn t. I couldn t explain how I had come to be here, 200 years in the future, the future of another universe "Commander, we should inform the illusive man of what s happened" Miranda suggested, turning to Shepard to gain his attention. As soon as I heard the words a wave of fear washed over me, the illusive man. If he were to be told of what I had he would begin to ask questions, want to see me and that couldn t lead to anything good, I had no answers to give to him - and he hated not knowing things.

"Please, don t tell the Illusive man, I...I don t I..." Words ceased to form in my mind, emotions were too thick to think over. All this, waking up here, meeting Commander Shepard and Miranda, now, I was going to be handed over to the illusive man to be tested and possibly experimented on to see how I got here. It was too much, too much to think about at once. To much.  
My head span, the world seemed to blur around me. Everything went black as I hit the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

When I awoke from my loss of conciousness, I remember my first thoughts were off how good a dream I thought that was, which then shortly was followed by a great feeling of sadness and loss for some part that I hadn't done more in the time I had.

This was all before I opened my eyes and actually took notice of my surrondings. I expected to open my eyes and be greeted by my bedroom ceiling that I had grown accustomed to, the plain white paint acted as a canvas to project my thoughts onto, but,  
fortunatly for me; I was not greeted by my bedroom ceiling. Or any other part of my room for that I opened eyes for the first time in I didn't know how long I was pleasently suprised to find the light setting of the medical bay aboard the Normandy as the place I wound up.

The cool, ventilated are of the medical bay blew over my body; the light breeze a welcome feeling compared to that of a metal floor - it also was good to feel my senses were now back into focus after them being in disaray. A smell of disinfectant and rubber wafted into my nostrils "I don't really like that smell but it could be worse I suppose" my internal monolouge said.  
My eyes felt rested yet still weary from being closed for so long, my attempt to rub my eyes didn't go as planned. As I went to lift my right hand to my eyes I felt a sudden pull, but not like something was physically holding them but like they were "Locked" in space.

I quickly looked to down to my hands at this, shifting my upper torso from the medical bay to do so; It was then that I saw my hands were in some kind of transparent ball of sorts, a hole for my hand to go in was the only access point; a metal loop around the ball connected it to the sides of the medical bed. I quick check revealed my other hand was also encased in another of the same contraption. "Don't try to struggle, you won't get out of them, and you'll only hurt yourself" A male voice said, the voice suprised me and I looked up promptly to see who's it was. Standing near the desk Doctor Chakwas used was commander Shepard,  
leaning over towards one of the computer monitors; he returned to looking at the screen after he spoke. "Your hands are being held in place by mass effect fields inside those domes, thats why you can't move them" He glanced over to the the mass field domes before returning his eyes to the screen.

"Oh, right... I guess I can see where your coming from really" I told Shepard, my voice showing slight nerves as I spoke.  
"Wouldn't want somebody you know nothing about getting up in the middle of a medical scan, hah" I said, laying back down and looking to the ceiling of the room as I spoke. "Exactly, we need to check your agenda and health before we want you walking around the ship" Shepard replied. The hydraulic noise of the med-bay door opening grabbing both his and my attention, the door sections slid into their alcoves to reveal Doctor Chakwas "Commander" she said as she walked swiftly to her desk and picked up a datapad. She tapped on the pad, reading the streams of information that appeared on the orange screen as she walked towards the medical bed I was on.

Her grey hair brushed behind one ear and her cerberus uniform gave a wise look to her as she walked towards me, "So Thomas...  
how are you feeling?" She stopped a couple of steps from the table and looked to me as she asked, her hand holding the datapad dropping to her side, she looked at me as she spoke. Her whole demeanour was quite motherly in some ways.  
"I'm fine I think, a slight headache but apart from that..." As I spoke, Doctor Chakwas glanced up to my head, her brows furrowed in slight confusion. The expression faded as quickly as it arrived. "That's good" She said, glancing over to Shepard. "Commander,  
could you hand me that pack of Medi-gel off the desk please?" The Commander shifted his gaze to the desk, spotting the small red packet on the desk and throwing it under arm to the doctor who caught it with no trouble. "I'm just going to sort out that small laceration on your forehead, it seems you may have hit something as you passed out"

"I don't remember... that might be why my head hurts though" I told Doctor Chakwas, she opened up the small red packet and applied some of the transparents gel on my forehead, the soothing cold of the gel helped almost instantly on the pain.  
"Wow, that stuff really works" Laughing lightly as I told her. Both Doctor Chakwas and Shepard smiled a little at my reaction. The doctor finnsished applying the gel and placed her disposable gloves in a nearby trash chute on the wall.  
"You make it sound like you've never used medi-gel before" The Commander joked. The joke wasn't lost on me, but the humour of the matter was, I hadn't used medi-gel before; while practically everyone in this universe had. I put on a empty smile to fit with the joke.

The commander walked from near the doctors desk over to a terminal built into the wall near my head and Doctor Chakwas moved over to her desk, sat down on the office chair and began typing away at the console. "Your neural scans came back fine, nothing out of the ordinary so no need to worry on that front, but..." "Commander" the commander was cut off by a very familiar voice over the speaker/ microphone system "We're approaching Omega now. ETA around 10 minutes"  
Shepard looked up to the speakers with this "Thanks Joker, Tell Jacob and Miranda to ready up" He said to the microphone "Aye aye, sir" Joker said over the speakers. Shepard looked back to me from the speakers, his face slightly cautious, he looked to one side; showing he was thinking. "We'll discuss what to do with you when I get back, I'm going to remove the mass field domes but your going to stay in the med-bay..."

The commander looked over to Doctor Chakwas as he spoke "That is if that's ok with you Doctor?" Doctor Chakwas nodded at the commander.  
"I'm not as frail as I might seem Commander, I have Alliance training too you know. Some of the best unarmed training in the galaxy" She stated, laughing as she did. "Alright doc, I'm sure you can get Mess Sergeant Gardner to fix you something up if you get hungry" Shepard said, glancing over to me as he told us. I nodded my head at the Commander as he walked over to the main desk,  
typed on the holographic keyboard and the mass fields in the domes ceased to exsist. He then proceded to walk swiftly out of the medical bay; the hydraulic door opening and closing for the commander. I removed my hands from the domes, rubbing my wrist and sat up on the medical bed. Touching the place were the pain had been I turned my thoughts to the time ahead and what I could say to the commander.


	4. Chapter 4

For the next couple of minutes I remained seated on the medical bed, sifting through the thoughts that floated around in my head; primarily of the situation I was in, possible paths I could take etcetera. Secondarily, I thought of the home I had left behind - Wondering if I had just been scrubbed out of existence and moved here instead or if I had just vanished without a trace. The thought of never seeing anyone I had ever known again was a lot to process, everything I had grown accustomed to, had been pulled from under me.

Tears of loss welled up in my eyes as I thought of family and friends, never having a chance to say goodbye. I couldn t remember the last thing I said to any of them. That hurt the most, not knowing if I left on bad words, or if my parents would even know I existed now that I was in this universe.

I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand, taking a deep and slow breath in and out, trying to calm myself. I stood up from the medical bed, my legs feeling weak under me, supporting myself with the side of the bed I shook my legs, trying to wake them up. Looking around the room slowly I spotted Doctor Chakwas sitting at her desk still, she finished her typing and on the haptic interface keyboard and looked over to me next to the bed.

"Are you alright Tom? If you don t mind being called that" She asked me, concern on her face accompanied by slightly furrowed eyebrows. "I just feel a bit weak, my legs don t really feel awake at the minute, and no I don t mind being called Tom sort of prefer it actually" I said in response to her, standing up straight; taking my hands from the bed as I spoke. The doctor stood up from her desk, sliding the chair back under as she rose. "You're probably in need of some food and drink, you haven t eaten in the last several hours, I was just going to fetch some dinner anyway so I ll grab you some too if you'd like" The sound of having some food and drink had much appeal to it. "Why don t you walk around the room, wake your legs up and I'll be back in a minute"

I gave her a brief nod accompanied by a smile, the doctor then walked to the med-bay door and left the room, the door sliding back into place behind her. The hydraulic noise of the door was shortly followed the quiet humming of the ship. I shook my legs one last time before I began to walk around the medical bay my steps varying from large too small. "I bet I look rather silly to EDI" I thought to myself suspecting she would be watching me during this time. After a moment or two my legs felt like mine again and Doctor Chakwas returned with two grey plastic trays.

I passed the Doctor a brief "Thank you" as she handed me one of the trays and I stood leaning over one of the medical beds, placing my tray on the bed in front of me. "God I really hope the food doesn't taste like ass" I thought, remembering some of the crew members on the game commented on the food sometimes as you walked past. The concern must have shown on my face as Doctor Chakwas looked at me, laughed and looked back to her tray. "It isn't as bad as some ship food I've eaten, it's healthy stuff this, besides, you need any food you can get from what the sounds you stomach were making earlier" the doctor joked.

I laughed at this and began to tuck into the varying foods on the tray, surprised to see some earth food I recognised, I gladly began eating the selection of meats and vegetables and the glass of water. After about 10 minutes of eating the tray meal and talking with the Doctor about what I thought of; the Alliance, the other species and of Cerberus, we both finished and Doctor Chakwas took the trays back to the cook. Happy with the fact the food didn't taste like ass and that I know was comfortably stuffed I went to the restroom (With permission from the doctor, who asked EDI to keep an eye on me there and back).

A few moments later, while returning to the med-bay, the automatic door for the observation room opened, nearly scaring me to death in the process, to reveal the abyss of space beyond the impressively large window. Feeling the pull towards the amazing view I guessed just a minute wouldn t matter too much. I walked into the observation room and stopped a step or two from the window, the view was spectacular. "A clear night sky on Earth ain't got anything on this" I said aloud, the beauty of space holding my eyes to the thousands of stars and collections of brightly coloured gases floating in space. Even through the light smoke being put out by Omega the stars shone brightly.

EDI, who must have still been watching me during the short time I was admiring the scene, prompted me to return to the medical bay. Looking up to the speakers above the door I told the AI "Alright EDI, I'm going" I then returned to the med-bay, as instructed by the Artificial Intelligence. Having looked around the sections of the ship between the med-bay and the observation room I learnt that the ship did follow the layout from the games so that was good. "I'd hate it if I had to figure out where everything was again" I thought entering the medical bay through the hydraulic door.

"You took your time, EDI told me of your detour to the observation room, I have to admit, I sometimes do the same thing when I have the time or when I need to think in peace... but you shouldn't go wandering around the ship" The last section was said by her in a stern tone. "We don t want to detain you, personally I don t see you as a threat, but the other might not see you as that" The fact that at least one person on the ship trusted me made the outlook of the situation not seem as bad.

I sat down next to the Doctor who wanted to know why I had no Immuno-booster (Which apparently were given to humans when they leave Earth and boosted the immune system against alien diseases and viruses), I told her that I had lived on a small colony in the Terminus Systems and we hadn't had access to things like that and shortly before I awoke on the Normandy the colony had been raided by Batarian pirates and that I had escaped on an evac shuttle. "I'm sorry to hear about your home Tom, truly, I ve never hated any species but the Batarians are one of my least favourite - pirates and the sort, though I met some nicer ones who worked as merchants, mechanics anyway, I m going to give you one of the older Immuno-boosters I have; just to be safe"

"Err Thanks Doc, I guess I don t really want Turian Flu or something I joked" laughing as I said it. Doctor Chakwas laughed at what I said as she stood up, walking over to a glass-fronted cupboard and opening it up, she searched through the shelves looking for something. I watched for a minute before she turned around with a small white cardboard box, she opened the box up, walking back over to the desk as she pulled out a syringe from the box, my heart began to race, I hated syringes with a passion. The syringe contained a strange liquid which changed colour depending on the angle you looked at it, though mainly transparent.

"Uh oh" I said under my breath as the took the plastic cover from the needle and placed it on the table, then flicking the syringe and squirting a little out of the needle. My heart was beating embarrassingly fast at this point. "Alright, put out your arm on the table and move your sleeve up" she told me, slowly, not wanting to have an injection at all I put my arm up and moved the sleeve. And the injection began.

A minute later, the immune-Booster was rushing through my blood stream and my arm had a precise point of pain in it. A quick wipe with a tissue wiped the blood away and I stood up for a walk around the room; plus Doctor Chakwas wanted to make sure I had no adverse effects to the injection, something like "1% of all people injected have negative side effects to the injection" . A few moments later I felt fine and the Doctor fetched me a glass of water to be sure.

From when I woke up in the med-bay it had been a few hours, Shepard, Jacob and Miranda had been gone for a while less on Omega and I still had no answers to give Shepard as to how I got onto his ship or why I was in this universe in the first place. After finishing the water I remembered that there were showers in the restrooms on this level of the Normandy and I began to want one quite badly, being in the same clothes for so long and sleeping in them too doesn t exactly give the feeling of being the most hygienic person here.

"Hey, Doctor Chakwas, is there any chance I could catch a shower in the restrooms? I feel like I need one" I asked the doctor, she looked at me, had a little laugh and in response "Yes, I don t see why not" she said with an agreeing tone. "There should be some towels some there" I thought; "hopefully I don t need to buy one." "You might need another set of clothing as well, no point getting dressed back into your used clothes again" she looked at me, as if she was evaluating me "I think we ll have some clothes that fit you, Cerberus clothing, but clothing none-the-less"

The doctor left the room and came back a few minutes later with the Cerberus branded clothing, black and white T-shirt and black trousers with large black boots. "These should fit you fine; I trust you noticed where they were when you went to the restroom?" I nodded with her question. "Alright, well I'll let you go then, don't wander off again would you please?" She said, I laughed and nodded again as I left the room.

Around 5 minutes later I was washed, dressed in the new Cerberus clothing and feeling much better. Leaving the bathroom and walking back to the med-bay the speakers turned on and EDI's voice rang through the ship. "Commander Shepard and the shore party have returned, Med-bay prepare for emergency operations. Archangel was seriously injured during the mission. All Medically trained staff report to Doctor Chakwas." The synthetic voice cut off and then a sudden rush of adrenaline began running through my body. Garrus is Archangel; he is injured quite badly during his recruitment mission.

I don't know how but it had skipped my mind during all this time Shepard had been on Omega, I quickly picked up my things from the restroom and walked with a obviously quickened pace to the med-bay. The elevator was just opening as I was walking past, the sight was horrific. Garrus, Shepard and a dozen un-named crewmen were carrying Garrus on a medical board, rushing out of the elevator "Move Thomas!" Shepard barked as I jumped out of the way, blue liquid was covering Garrus face and the medical board. Garrus rifle slipped from his grasps as he lost consciousness, it hit the floor with a clatter, not bothered by the dropped weapon; the others continued rushing to the med-bay.

I stood there for a few moments, locked in what had just happened, the rifle not in its compact form still rested on the floor, splatters of blue liquid, turian blood, covered some of the rifle. I walked over to it hesitantly, picked it up where no blood splashes were and carried it over to the rest room. I shook my head trying to free it from the moment that just happened. Not wanting to return to the med-bay, not wanting to see my favourite character like that. I figured I'd clean his weapon for him, remove the blood. I don't think he'll want his rifle back to him like this, especially after what s just happened to him.

I began to clean the rifle in the restroom, placing it on the fold out table from the wall and cleaning it delicately and thoroughly with the disposable towels. The smell of turian blood, which reminded me of the smell of gas, was awful filling my nostrils but I persevered, for Garrus sake. Trying not to think of what just happened to him.


	5. Chapter 5

I m not sure how long I was in restroom since Garrus had been rushed into the med-bay.

I had been focusing on the weapon, cleaning it as precisely as I could, not wanting to damage the futuristic sniper rifle. Attempting to keep my mind occupied with whatever I could, however the image of Garrus on the medical board was burned into my mind; before that I had never seen such as serious injury first-hand. Not a great place to start.

After maybe an hour (At a guess) I had cleaned the majority of the blood from the rifles body, sight and barrel. The blue liquid did not take long to wash off the rifle; it luckily hadn t time to coagulate on the weapon and came off with no real issue. The smell which reminded me of gas, still drifted through my nostrils which had to adjust to the new smell and a sickness in my stomach rose and fell repeatedly during the time I was in the restroom.

From looking at the weapon for the time I had been cleaning I had figured out how to change the weapon from its extended version to the compact version, a small button just above the triggering mechanism changed the weapons form. I had also learnt how thermal clips were injected/ ejected from the sniper rifle; a small section of the rifle would push inwards and allow thermal clips into the weapon, while ejection of the clips required the user to pull back on a tab on the left side of the body.

Through this time the sound of shouting crew members and medical staff pierced the air demanding various medical devices and medicines. Their voices were the only noises that passed to me at this time; my iPod earphones were in my ears at this point. I could always concentrate more with music.

After what seemed like hours I had finished the cleaning of the weapon and my investigation into its inner workings (or at least the basics of such) being more technically minded on Earth might have helped a little. I finally pushed the compact button on the weapon and the several sections of the rifle folded into one-another, decreasing its overall size. I then moved all of the paper towels into the trash chute and washed my hands thoroughly; my skin had taken on a slight blue-ish tint to it from the blood and took several minutes to scrub it off.

A couple of moments later I picked up the rifle and left the rest room, removing my earphones and placing them back in my pocket. The silence was heavy, like a thick fog over the whole ship; straining my ears to hear more, there was nothing, only the muffled humming of the vessel s engine. Taking a step around the corner I could begin to hear the noise of hydraulic doors opening and closing, a few seconds parted the noise each time. I slowly walked towards the medical bay, passing the table made for eating at; a few of the crew members were sat at the table with their faces looking down at the table top, it was hard to discern their emotions.

I increased my walking speed, my heart beating faster, half of me wanting to turn around and wait for news and the other, more dominant said wanting to check on Garrus condition. As I passed the glass windows of the med-bay I spotted the turian layer out on one of the medical beds, Doctor Chakwas applying what appeared to be Medi-gel on his face wound. I slowed to a stop at the medical door, taking a deep breath in and exhaling as I entered the room. The feel of the room was different than it had been when I had been the patient. I was once again greeted with the gas-like smell of turian blood along with a mixture of disinfectant and the artificial tinge to the air, the lights had been dimmed on the far side of the room near Garrus and Doctor Chakwas.

I cautiously walked down the other side of the med-bay, not wanting to disturb the doctor as she worked; her body was blocking view of Garrus face so I couldn t see his condition until I got close to the two. My breathing heavy, I reached the end of the medical bed and passed around to the other side of the bed opposite the doctor. The turian lay out on the medical bed breathing deeply; his eyes flickered from the doctor to me as I approached the bed. "Is he alright?" I inquired grimly, casting my glance to Doctor Chakwas as I asked her.

"He's a tough one Garrus; Turians are a hardy race even on the worst of days but he's strong" the last couple of words had an underlying tone of uncertainty to them. "He helped the Commander fight the geth, Saran and Sovereign and the attack on the Citadel". She added. My memories cast back as she said that, remembering I took Garrus and Tali on the final mission.

"I've cleaned his rifle, I... I figured he wouldn't want it covered in blood..." I told her, raising it over the bed and holding it out in both hands, still in its compact form, the weapon looked as clean as ever. She looked to Garrus with a half-smile before looking back to me, picking up the rifle steadily and placing it on a small table next to her. "Thank you" the doctor said smiling lightly "I'm surprised you managed to clean it without damaging it, these kinds of rifles often take a steady hand" I looked to Garrus as she spoke, the cybernetics used to reconstruct the section of his face hit were lit in places, deep blue lights under the layer of Medi-gel.

"I just have a steady hand I guess plus, I like technology, hah" I told her, my voice quiet, not wanting to disturb Garrus, casting a glance to him, our eyes meeting for a second before the sound of the med-bay door grabbing my attention. Shepard and Jacob entered the room, Shepard still wearing his armour and Jacob in his Cerberus jumpsuit, neither of them had their weapons on them "probably been in the armoury" I thought as the two walked up to the medical bed quietly, they both gave me a look I couldn t quite pin-point, somewhere between confusion and respect.

"So you re our stow-away, Thomas, is it? I'm Jacob" He said to me, standing next me as Shepard stood at the end of the bed, talking to the doctor about what I assumed would be Garrus. "Um, yeah I guess that could be it, nice to meet you" I replied to him, his good nature and trusting personality showing somewhat. "So how is he?" Jacob asked me, looking down to the injured turian, who attempted to speak but was hushed by Doctor Chakwas, something about "Allowing Medi-gel time to work" and something about a "procedure" . All me, Shepard and Jacob chuckled a little at this, Doctor Chakwas giving a stern look to us, followed by a slight smile and shaking her head.

"Our Thomas here turns out to be knowledgeable somewhat in maintenance of sniper rifles, Commander" The doctor said to Shepard looking up to him, before turning her attention to a Datapad resting on the table next to her, reading the streams of information. "He managed to clean Garrus rifle without giving it a scratch from what I can see, beyond what most teenagers that I ve seen can do she added." The commander looked to me with these comments, his eye brows raised slightly "Really?" The commander asked, most likely rhetorically, looking to the rifle on the small table. "Nice work Thomas, where'd you learn that?" he asked looking back to me from the rifle; Embarrassed at the attention, my words didn t want to come out. "He says he's just got a steady hand" the doctor said, noticing my awkwardness I thought "and that he likes technology in general, a techy in the making I think" she added, putting the Datapad down and walking over to the glass fronted cabinets.

"Maybe, though he doesn't have an Omni-tool, at all that s like having no heart for an aspiring techy hah" the Commander replied, laughing slightly at the end. He looked down to one side again, his thinking face "Cerberus put a pack of different Omni-tools down on Engineering, they said in case I needed another that suited me more, I think Cerberus can spare one or two of those Omni-tools" The commander said smiling to me. My heart skipped at beat at the mention of getting my own Omni-tool, those cool looking orange holographic gauntlet; that could be used for anything from being at torch (Or flashlight, whatever you call it) to hacking synthetics and causing overloads. My thoughts were all over during those few seconds, I managed to scramble a few words together to suit my thoughts "That sounds awesome" thanks I told the commander, feeling excited at getting my own Omni-tool.

"Alright, gentlemen I need to apply the healing pack to Garrus now; it should speed up the healing process" the doctor said from the medical cabinets. My thoughts turned to the white, almost fabric looking padding that covered his face in game, I remembered never fully knowing what it was, just guessing. Doctor Chakwas voice was stronger than before, she walked back with an average sized grey case, roughly the size of a small laptop. On the label of the case were some medical information and the Cerberus logo in the corner. Assuming the case contained the healing pack, Commander Shepard began to walk from the med-bay, me and Jacob followed a few seconds after. I gave Garrus a final look as I walked away, our eyes met again for a few seconds before I left the med-bay in silence.

Commander Shepard was waiting for me and Jacob as we left the med-bay and the door slid together behind us. "So, Tom, do you want to go choose an Omni-tool now?" Shepard asked, standing against the wall. "Uhm, Yes commander" I said in reply, my excitement level rising by the minute. "Alright then, we'll head down to engineering now then" Shepard told me. Jacob stood to salute the commander saying "Commander, I'll return to the armoury, I'll be there if you need me" before walking towards the elevator. Commander Shepard led the way to the Engineering deck, a few moments later we arrived at the bottom of the ship. Red lights were all that illuminated the enclosed area, crates lay scattered around the room, and the sound of the engine humming ran under the sounds of out footsteps on the metal floor as we approached one of the crates.

The commander opened the crate marked "SSV NORMANDY - OMNI-TOOLS" , I small hiss sounded as the crates lid slid open. Inside were collections of boxes, some were black in colour and others were greys and some were white. After Shepard explained the basic principle of the coloured boxes which was that black boxed Omni-tools were harder hitting and did more damage with things like overloads and incinerates, grey boxes had longer durations and could control synthetics and create droids for longer and the white boxed ones contained Omni-tools that had higher recharge speeds and could process actions and information faster. I decided to choose one of the white boxed Omni-tools figuring that faster recharging and processing capacity would come in useful.

I picked up one of the white boxes labelled "XV Omni-Pro" the box displayed an Omni-tool and described the basic functions of the Omni-tool. I held it in my hands, the box near match-box size, was smaller than I thought it would be but I wasn t complaining. I stopped admiring the box and looked up to Shepard and thanked him for the Omni-tool, he said that Cerberus has far too many credits and helping me out was his way of putting better use to those credits. We both laughed and I looked back down to the box, as we walked back to the elevator I couldn t help but smile at it, "This is going to kick ass" I thought to myself as the elevator rose to the crew deck and the doors opened.


	6. Chapter 6

Once the elevator had arrived on the crew deck on the Normandy I stepped out, planning to walk to the med-bay and start working out the Omni-tool I had been given, my thought train was interrupted by Shepard; who was still stood in the elevator, waiting for it to move to another floor I assumed. "Thomas." I turned around to face the Commander "I'd leave the Doctor to work on Garrus for a while, you can wait at the dining table for her to finish" he added, my thoughts clicking together and seeing that would be the best thing to do.

"Alright commander, I'll be trying out my Omni-tool if you need me" I replied, before walking towards the dining area of the ship, the elevator door sliding closed in front of the commander. As I approached the table and sat down at the far side I noticed two things; one, engineer Gabriella Daniels was also sat at the table, eating from one of the grey plastic trays. And two, the aroma coming from the kitchen was something I had never smelt before in my life. I turned my head to kitchen area to look at what the chef might be cooking but I couldn't see what was inside the steaming cooking pot.

Sitting down again I opened up the white Omni-tool box that I had placed on the table and began to pull out the different things packed in the small box. "Hey." A female voice said from the other side of the table I looked over to the woman talking to me, Gabriella "Are you the kid the Commander found near engineering?" she asked me, in that slightly high-pitched voice she had, placing her fork back onto the tray. "Umm does everyone know about that? It seems everyone I see asks me" I replied to the engineer, laughing at the situation.

"Yeah pretty much, me and Kenneth heard all commotion while we were working and wondered what the fuss was about" I remembered the two engineers were pretty much tied at the hip in the games and could imagine "EDI told us they found someone unregistered on board, so it is you?" she asked, pressing me for answers "Yes, it was me" I replied turning my head back to the Omni-tool, reading through the paper pamphlet which told me the basic functions of the tech and some instructions on use and maintenance. "Hmm" Gabby said quietly, she herself turning back to her food slowly.

After a few minutes I had read through the instructions and pulled the small band out of the box; the band was a thin plastic strip with what looked like a metal strip in the middle. A thin line of orange light ran around the full length of the band and a small square panel was secured on one section of the loop. I slipped the band onto my left wrist and the band automatically tightened and was comfortably secure on my wrist, the small panel located on the top of my wrist. I tapped the panel and the band vibrated for a second before the familiar orange holographic gauntlet appeared over my left hand and forearm.

The Omni-tool illuminated the section of the table I was at in a slight orange glow; text began to appear above my forearm and asked for my name. After typing the details in the Omni-tool ran me through about half an hours worth of tutorials on working the device, firstly the basic workings and then I went onto intermediate and advanced workings. My face locked with a smile at the device, remembering everything to the best of my ability I was quite happy that I had learned the majority of what I'd seen, running through some things a couple of times to get a thorough grasp. My time had been filled with typing away at the holographic keyboard and waving my arm at various electronic devices around the room. Content that I had learned what I could I tapped the small panel again, which was visible through a holographic circle on top of my hand and the Omni-tool faded away quickly along with its orange glow.

I looked back up to the rest of room, catching Gabby looking away quickly back to her tray, which was empty at this point. "Were you just... watching me on my Omni-tool?" I asked her, my voice filled with confusion at this. "Um, yeah, I guess so... I mean! I'm not a weirdo, it s just that you managed to grasp the Omni-tool pretty quickly, it took me about two hours to understand it all for the first time" Gabby's voice also had some confusion to it as well as something else. "Have you worked with that kind of model before? Like, ever?" she inquired, brushing one of her dark brown hairs behind her ear. "Not really, no this is my first Omni-tool" I said in response, looking away from her face as I spoke, avoiding her eye contact for a few seconds. "Honestly?" Her voice rising in pitch and her head moving back as she spoke. "Well, Kenneth may have some competition here, he was Omni-tool literate an hour after his first Omni-tool, and he was around your age too" her voice returning back to normal pitch.

"Mm, I doubt it; he's pretty good at what he does" I replied to Gabby, realising my mistake as soon as I finished the sentence. "Wait. How would you know?" she asked, one eye brow rising as did. My brain couldn t think of anything valid to say at that moment, and then I had a light bulb moment, blurting the sentence out before I forgot. "Erm, Doctor Chakwas gave me a brief run-down of the crew while I was in the med-bay, told me who was who I guess" I said quickly, the silence between me speaking and Gabby's response seemed like forever. "Oh right, um, I guess you were in there a while, it makes sense that you and the Doc talked" she said, shrugging her shoulders while she spoke.

"Yeah, ha-ha so... "I thought about my words this time before speaking "do you and Ken work in engineering?" I asked, fully knowing the answer but asking regardless so I could talk about it with her. "Yep, me and Kenneth are the main engineers on the Normandy, running diagnostics, making repairs, over-seeing upgrades to the ship; the works"

For a while me and Gabby sat at the dining table, talking about the Normandy, everyday work for the engineers on the ship and the uses the Omni-tool had besides the "By the book" uses as Gabby called them. Kenneth joined us a while later, typing away at his Omni-tool as he grabbed a seat opposite Gabby who introduced us and caught him up on what we were talking about. The three of us sat there for what have must have been an hour discussing Cerberus, comparing Omni-tools and other tech-based subjects. Kenneth played some music from his Omni-tool, the sound quality was incredible, but the volume was kept down for people working in the med-bay. Kenneth had a few songs from my time/ universe/ whatever. Including Paramore, so the music was pleasing to both me and Kenneth, Gabby didn t see the appeal and said how "sensory bands are the real deal."

A few more minutes passed before the med-bay door opened; all heads turned to the noise of the hydraulic door sliding apart. Garrus Vakarian stepped through the threshold rubbing the side of his face were the healing pack had been applied. His blue armour, some of which had been damaged had burn marks around it, black marks burnt onto the navy blue turian armour. Garrus stepped out of the med-bay and preceded to walk towards the elevator, looking around the room, his visor still perfectly intact passed over me and Garrus stopped for a second and began to walk over to the dining table. "Hey, you're the guy who fixed my rifle up, right?" He said to me, standing at just over 6ft tall he looked more imposing than I would have thought. "Yyeah, that was me, I didn't think you d want it back covered in your... um, blood" I said, my voice quieter than usual. Gabby and Ken had turned back to face each other.

Garrus made a chuckle as I told him the last bit, "Yeah, well thanks, you have a steady hand apparently, would like to test you on a firing range sometime; against one of the galaxy s greatest snipers ha-ha" He said in response, both me and him laughed at the last comment, knowing for a fact he actually could be. I managed to say the words "Maybe I'll take you up on that challen-" before I was cut off by Joker over the speaker system "Sorry to interrupt, Garrus, Commander Shepard would like to see you in the conference room when you're ready" The voice cut off from the speakers "Thanks Joker, I'm on my way" Garrus replied, looking up to the speaker. Garrus looked back to me "We'll see about the shooting range later haha, good meeting you Tom" he said, before walking back off towards the elevator. Knowing he was going up to meet Commander Shepard, Jacob would also be there and would call Garrus "A tough son of a b*tch" the thought made me laugh to myself as I turned back to Gabby and Kenneth who turned to me and we began talking again.


End file.
